Transportation's Relationship with the Economy
There is an old U.S. Army Corps motto that says, "Nothing happens until something moves!" The principle behind this idea is that without transportation an army could not function to complete its missions. The same principle applies to the economy. Whether global, national, or local, the economy is heavily dependent upon transportation. There are very few businesses that do not require some form of transportation to effectively move their goods and services to their customers. This paper will examine the importance of transportation in the economy and demonstrate both its positive and negative impacts.
An analysis of transportation's impact on the economy must start with a definition of terms. Transportation can be defined as the movement of people and/or goods from one place to another, and the economy consists of "Activities related to the production and distribution of goods and services in a particular geographic region" ("Economy," n.d.). Thus, the transporting of people to and from their jobs and the transporting of raw materials to manufacturers and finished goods to stores and customers is a vital component in the economy, because without transportation, products could not be manufactured or distributed to those that want to purchase them.
History and Relationship of Transportation and the Economy
History reveals a great deal about the importance of transportation in an economy. For example, in the early American colonies, most towns and cities were situated on natural transportation pathways such as rivers and seaports. In 1800, newly elected president Thomas Jefferson determined to find a waterway that connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific so that he could "build a system of trade that connected people throughout the country," so he sent Lewis and Clark to explore the West (Moss, 2004). They found no such "coast-to-coast waterwa...